What rate should you be paid?

funny, it seems most of the designers I know are on a smaller wage than the national regional average for their position… maybe this is down to inflation not catching up in the companies they work for, and simply not asking for regular pay rises. I’m not the best at asking for raises, but maybe I should press on and have punt and see what I can do!

I heard about this from Design Week’s website and the article comes with alot of stats which make interesting reading… see what you’re on and compare it to what they say you should be on!!

http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/137905/What+rate+should+you+be+paid.html

Speculative Work

I’ve always been a keen supporter of the movement that has gathered pace recently, which is making an concerted effort to try and get graphic designers to not do any speculative work. Having been caught before by a client who has no intention of paying anything or taking the design further and just wants fresh design concepts to give to their “own” designer to work up for them. Never trust a client who sends a brief along with initial the contact email and expects you to send an initial design with your quote… in all probability you’re never going to hear from him/her again after the design has been sent. Sad but true, this is a growing trend… I even know of a company from Ripley, Derbyshire (who I won’t name for reasons of not getting a punch to the chops) who place a small job ad in all the local papers and expect all applicants to produce an initial design for their catalogue prior to interview. Sounds pretty plausable, right? It did to my friend (a great designer) who went for the job, didn’t get it and was talking to another designer from the Derby area who knew the designer who actually worked their and said that they do it every year… just to get some fresh design concepts into the building, there never has been a job there in 7 years.

Anyways… if you’re interested in any more visit www.no-spec.com and give them a link from your site

Still awake at night

I don’t know what it is about design that makes me disregard my sleeping necessities and stay awake longer working on my designs. I can only assume that my passion for detail and design is taking over my brain and blocking out that basic human need. That said I’ve always been a night owl, even before I was bitten by the design bug all those years ago.

night night…